BOOKS.

[schmerica]

Another year of reading! This year was really really heavy on romance novels, I find, and light on everything else. I didn't manage to keep track of all the graphic novels I read, however, which would skew the data quite a bit. Books I started and never finished, including collections of short stories, aren't included; books I read for school are only if I read and digested the whole thing. I actually thought my reading this year was pretty weak, all around -- no amazing discoveries like last year -- but looking back, there was still some really good stuff. My top five are in bold (cheating, by counting only one from a series).

Goal for next year: MORE READING YIS.

Books Read, Age 21

1. The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett
2. The Hidden Heart by Laura Kinsale
3. Charlie All Night by Jennifer Crusie
4. Lord of Midnight by Jo Beverley
5. Something Wicked by Jo Beverley
6. The Duke and I by Julia Quinn
7. How to Marry a Marquis by Julia Quinn
8. The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn
9. For My Lady’s Heart by Laura Kinsale
10. Lord of My Heart by Jo Beverley
11. An Offer From a Gentleman by Julia Quinn
12. Romancing Mr. Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
13. The King’s Peace by Jo Walton
14. Marian’s Christmas Wish by Carla Kelly
15. Other Powers: The Age of Spiritualism, Suffrage and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull by Barbara Goldsmith
16. A Dying Light in Corduba by Lindsey Davis
17. Black Silk by Judith Ivory
18. A Most Unsuitable Man by Jo Beverley
19. Courting Midnight by Emma Holly
20. From Boys to Men: Formations of Masculinity in Late Medieval Europe by Ruth Mazo Karras
21. Point of Hopes by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett
22. His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik
23. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks
24. Warsworn by Elizabeth Vaughan
25. Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik
26. Guns, Germs and Steel: the Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
27. Rubicon: the Last Years of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland
28. Point of Honour by Madeleine E. Robins
29. Black Powder War by Naomi Novik
30. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
31. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
32. Don't Look Down by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer
33. Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
34. Size 12 is Not Fat by Meg Cabot
35. A Princess of Roumania by Paul Park
36. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
37. Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages by Mark Abley
38. Thud! By Terry Pratchett
39. Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy L. Sayers
40. Petty Treason by Madeleine Robins
41. Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson
42. The Confusion by Neal Stephenson
43. Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers
44. Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica by Sara Wheeler
45. The Shadow and the Star by Laura Kinsale
46. On the Ice: An Intimate Portrait of Life at McMurdo Station, Antarctica by Gretchen Legler
47. Magic or Madness by Justine Larbalestier
48. Uncertain Magic by Laura Kinsale
49. Lord Perfect by Loretta Chase
50. Libby's London Merchant by Carla Kelly
51. Dawn on a Distant Shore by Sara Donati
52. The Prince of Midnight by Laura Kinsale
53. Miss Grimsley's Oxford Career by Carla Kelly
54. Intuition by Allegra Goodman
55. God Against the Gods: the History of the War Between Monotheism and Polytheism by Jonathan Kirsch
56. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

Comments

[eledhwenlin]

I'm awed. I think I didn't even read 20 books this year. *sigh*

So I guess I can trust Amazon for recommending Naomi Novik to me, eh? Her books keep popping up every time I open my "recommended for you" page.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

*giggles* Amazon can identify fangirls from a mile away!

[sophia-helix.livejournal.com]

I managed to keep a good list this year (mine includes graphic novels and all the books I started and didn't finish just so it doesn't look so sad), and while I'm working on #50 right now, I feel like I cheated because so much of it is rereading and YA lit. However, I think we should get extra-credit for the Dunnett (six weeks that book took me!), and also I read the first three books of the A Song of Ice and Fire series and they're like 1200 pages apiece. Plus school! I read over a thousand pages of Islamic and religious philosophy this semester! *dies*

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

You should TOTALLY get extra credit for school reading. I mean, even looking at lists like this for me makes me remember what it was like before I went off to college -- I had time to read constantly, and I did, like, hundreds a year. I can only imagine how much more dramatic the trail off is for law school, man.

[devinandjason.livejournal.com]

It too is my B-day, we must be linked by the cosmic powers that be! : ) *smiles*

D-

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Hee, happy birthday!

[holyschist.livejournal.com]

You're way ahead of me--I have mostly been reading comic books graphic novels this year.

Is "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales" worth reading? I've liked the handful of Sacks essays I've read, but I'm not sure how far up my list to bump it.

[holyschist.livejournal.com]

P.S. Happy birthday!

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

I was really disappointed in it, actually. I was all "woo, interesting weird brain stuff" but it was really blah, and there weren't enough details in any of the stuff to get really involved.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I think that looks like an *excellent* reading year.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

It has many many excellent points to it, it is true! I think I am just spoiled by comparing it to last year (http://pearl-o.livejournal.com/641449.html), because it is hard to compete with discovering Laura Kinsale and Elinor Lipman for the first time, finishing off Sarah Caudwell and Jennifer Crusie's entire back catalogs, not to mention Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.